Did you know that half of all house fires are caused by cooking ingredients?
Next Tuesday (13 February) is Pancake Day and while it’s a British family favourite and tradition for many of us, it’s also by far the day where most smoke ...

Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS) is inviting people to become wholetime firefighters – the first chance to do so in almost nine years.
Recruitment will open on Monday 19 February at 6.30am, and will run for one week, or until ...

On New Year’s Eve, Dean Wright was awoken to a fire call that would end like no other.
Just after 7.30am, Dean left his wife and five sons asleep to head to Hawkwell Fire Station – the site that’s formed the opening scene to ...

The Essex Police, Fire and Crime Panel has confirmed Jo Turton as Chief Fire Officer/ Chief Executive for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS).
Jo’s appointment follows a rigorous recruitment process in November and December 2017, ...

Newport Firefighters save a life following cardiac arrest

Two Newport firefighters have helped save a life after being called to a cardiac arrest as part of the Service’s Co-Responders scheme.

Leading Firefighter Neil Saville and Firefighter Oliver Ford from Newport Fire Station were alerted to the incident on the morning of Saturday 9 July. They rushed to the scene and immediately set about performing CPR on the patient along with the paramedics who arrived at the same time as the firefighters. The quick and effective work by the firefighters and initial paramedic on the scene, meant that the patient was no longer in cardiac arrest and had a pulse when the Air Ambulance had arrived at the scene.

Assistant Divisional Officer Mark Wilby said:

“Incidents like this demonstrate how valuable the scheme is proving to be in our communities. When someone goes into cardiac arrest, the chance of survival goes down 10 per cent every minute they don’t receive CPR. Our firefighters live and work in these communities and so are well placed to respond to these incidents quickly and start treatment before the paramedics arrive.

“It is thanks to the quick actions of the firefighters that this person has survived.”

Firefighters in Essex have already attended more than 50 cardiac arrests since the launch of the Co-Responder scheme in May this year.

Under the scheme, crews at six fire stations across Essex attend the most serious cardiac arrest calls to give potentially life-saving chest compressions and use a defibrillator on the patient while ambulance crews are on the way. An Ambulance crew is always sent to the scene but having trained crews on the ground to deliver expert medical care immediately could improve the patients’ chance of survival.

Crews from Newport, Ongar, Coggeshall, Frinton Colchester and Basildon are currently part of the scheme which is being trialled until February 2017.